Iraqi women running for parliament this month are undaunted, despite many challenges they face ahead of the May 12 elections - including unprecedented smear campaigns complete with sex videos that have forced some to withdraw from the race.
Many see the vote as a chance to push women's issues to the fore in this traditionally male-dominated society, where women still find it hard to win a powerful place in politics.
There are concerns that women's rights are being eroded, 15 years after the US-led invasion toppled dictator Saddam Hussein with hopes of bringing democracy to a nation long staggering under wars, oppression and countless economic and social problems.
Nearly 2,600 female candidates are vying for a quarter - a quota allotted to women under the constitution - of parliament's 329 seats in these elections, the fourth since Saddam's 2003 ouster.
Fatin Rasheed Hameed, a candidate with the Baghdad Alliance party dominated by the country's minority Sunnis, says there would be fewer women in parliament if it were not for the 25 percent quota.
"One of the most important women's issues in Iraq that needs to be urgently addressed is marginalization," said the mother of two and a university professor with a doctorate in biology. "Our society still allows men to dominate in all areas and fields." "Even this quota is unfair," she added. "Half of any society's success depends on women; therefore the representation should be ... at least half of the seats."
One such video - which she dismissed as a "fabrication aimed at pushing her out" - forced Intidhar Ahmed Jassim, allied with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's Victory Alliance party, to withdraw from the race. In Iraq's southern Najaf province, tribal arbitration was held over a video showing a young man kissing the poster of a female candidate from another tribe. The outcome: he apologized, the apology was accepted and the female candidate's tribe even declined compensation for the insult. Alarmed by the unseen level of harassment, the U.N. chief's special representative for Iraq, Jan Kubis met last month with several women candidates over the "alarming situation" and "vulgar acts" targeting women, which he said only undermines the democratic process. "Those behind defamation, cyber bullying and harassment are trying to scare you off," Kubis told them, adding that the perpetrators are "afraid of educated, dynamic, qualified, courageous and open-minded women candidates that rightfully claim their space and meaningful role in political life of Iraq." Baydaa Salim al-Najar, who was at the meeting, said the attacks "systemically target candidates without the hijab, to knock you down."
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